Pitt sniffed out and shutdown the edges keeping Dex from getting outside, and they stuffed the middle on him. If anything, we had much much more success early with Jones Jr. He's not near the back of Dexter, but for some reason just the pure smashmouth, roadgrader game worked better when we ran that vs. what Dex brings.
I get you want to count the number of passes vs. rush and try to be balance, etc. It doesn't always work that way and I don't believe it has to. Running it wasn't there today, period. (see the stats below). Yes you need balance but sometimes you have to notice what's not working and figure out another way to do it. Or, do something else that might make it work. We didn't really do that today. Our best runs all day long (numerous) were QB draw up the middle. There were gaping holes and it worked when we did it.
Sometimes the number of times you run doesn't matter. You can't go on a strick count, run vs. pass. It all strictly depends on what does the defense give you and how much of it do you take? Nothing was ever there today and we got negative nothing (except on QB runs and the smash I mentioned), see below.
First Drive / Dex carry (-1yds)
/ Book carry (+12yds)
Second Drive / Dex carry (-2yds)
/ Book carry (+22yds)
Third Drive / Dex carry (+3yds)
/ Dex carry (+1yds)
/ Book (0yds)
/ Book (0yds)
Fourth Drive / Jones (+7yds)
/ Jones (+2yds)
/ Jones (+1yds)
/ Book (+5yds)
Fifth Drive / Book (+2yds)
Link: http://www.espn.com/college-football/playbyplay?gameId=401013148